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25 Sublime Sites to Download Free Stock Images in 2017

As a designer, it’s no doubt that you require free stock images on a regular basis. Whether you’re a graphic designer, a web designer or a user interface designer, photography is a mighty tool for capturing depth and emotion. And let’s not forget about big headers and hero images, which are oh-so-trendy!

We originally wrote this article way back in 2009, but since design trends have evolved, stock photography has gotten much less-cheesy, and the needs of designers have changed, we thought it’d be a smashing idea to update this article with some of the newer options that are available today.

Let’s take a look at 25 of the best free image sites in 2017.

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1. Magdeleine

Credit Required: some no, some yes

Searchability: average

Style/Genre: gloomy, ambient and emotional — mostly nature

With a focus on nature, Magdeleine tends to curate images that are dark but soft. Expect a lot of unsaturated tones, and an underlying ambience of loneliness. You can switch between a light and dark background, and also narrow down your search to show free CC0 images only (no attribution required whatsoever).

3. SplitShire

Credit Required: no

Searchability: average

Style/Genre: bright, uplifting, trendy

SplitShare might be the complete opposite of Magdeleine. Every image is bright, uplifting, colourful, and includes a variety of fully-edited stock images that you’d consider trendy today (MacBooks, double-exposure, etc). You’re really going to want to take a look at their Top Photos section!

4. New Old Stock

Credit Required: no, but you should double-check

Searchability: not bad, it’s hidden in the top-left corner

Style/Genre: black and white, sepia, vintage, etc

New Old Stock is about black and white, vintage, sepia, and generally old or old-looking stock images — they’re curated from Flickr, so double-check the license before use to make sure they are in fact free to use!

5. FancyCrave

Credit Required: no

Searchability: decent

Style/Genre: various themes

With two new images every day, there’s always something to discover on FancyCrave. Plenty of categories, minimalist layout, a strong contender.

6. Skitterphoto

Credit Required: no

Searchability: pretty accurate

Style/Genre: anything and everything

Skitterphoto has quite a large database of free stock images, so there’s no specific style or theme here, but I did notice that it’s a useful website for finding closeup shots of things. Many of the images have been edited in Photoshop already, so they look quite snazzy.

7. Unsplash

Credit Required: nope, all images have a CC0 licence

Searchability: very accurate

Style/Genre: anything and everything

You’ve obviously heard of Unsplash, right? It’s pretty huge, with plenty of free stock images being added every day. They even have an API — if you’re a user of InVision’s Craft Plugin for Sketch or Photoshop, you might already know that you can insert images from Unsplash directly into your designs!

8. Realgraphy

Credit Required: no

Searchability: average

Style/Genre: no specific genre, but all images are unedited

Realgraphy is probably the largest website dedicated to unedited stock photos — you won’t find a filter in sight. Ideal for serious designers.

9. Foodies Feed

Credit Required: no

Searchability: unexpectedly efficient

Style/Genre: food, food and more food

Foodies Feed is dedicated to free stock images of…well…food! Despite its niché nature, the search results are quite efficient (search for “Steak” and you’ll see!). Foodshot is another alternative.

10. Real Light

Credit Required: no

Searchability: unexpectedly efficient

Style/Genre: bright and bold — singular objects and posed shots

Real Light is terrific for finding singular objects or posed shots worthy of an e-commerce site. Imagine your old-school stock photography website, but with a little less cheese!

Tip: many of the of the resources listed here can be found on Zoommy App, a desktop app that collects CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) and Public Domain images from over 50 sources! It’s really come in handy for me this last year!